Physicist Richard Feynman is Honored with Postal Stamp
October 2005 - Physicist Richard Feynman is now appearing in post offices, mailboxes, and stamp collections. The U.S. Postal Service has recently issued a 37-cent stamp that features the Nobel laureate, whose 1959 speech "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" inspired scientists and engineers to imagine the potential of nanotechnology.
Feynman devised formulations for quantum theory and made that complex concept accessible with innovative diagrams-now called Feynman diagrams-devised to help visualize the dynamics of atomic particles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965, along with Shinichero Tomonaga of Japan and Julian Schwinger of Harvard University. The three had worked independently on problems in the theory of quantum electrodynamics, which describes how atoms produce radiation.
He described the theory for a general audience in his 1986 book, "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter." An earlier textbook, "The Feynman Lectures on Physics," was published in 1963 and remains a leading text in physics classes.
Over several decades, Feynman also made significant contributions to many other areas of physics, including the computation theory, the fundamental theory for the weak nuclear force, which he developed with colleague Murray Gell-Mann. He even delved into biology.
Today, Feynman is also remembered for his major role in the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident in 1986.
